MultiChoice Launches Moment, A New Payment Platform In Africa

MultiChoice has announced the launch of a new payment platform called Moment. The payment platform which is aimed at Africans, is coming as a joint venture with Rapid and General Catalyst. The company has said the platform will aim at transforming the African payments landscape by making digital payments more accessible and reliable for domestic, cross-border and global payments.

Speaking Calvo Mawela, MultiChoice Group CEO said;

We are excited about our venture with Rapyd and General Catalyst. It will address the need for an accessible and reliable payment platform for many small businesses and millions of consumers in Africa. Investing in this venture is a logical progression for us, as we already process payments every month from 22 million households across 50 countries in Africa.
Moment fulfills our strategy to expand our ecosystem, by investing in adjacent businesses that provide scalable services, underpinned by technology.

CEO of Rapyd, Arik Shtilman while speaking about the partnership said;

We are thrilled to be able to partner with MultiChoice and our network partners to provide Africa’s most complete payment platform for businesses through Moment. Africa is one of the most exciting markets in the world – with tremendous opportunities to expand the use of digital payments, drive cash payments to real-time digital payments, and to capitalise on the tremendous entrepreneurial drive of African businesses

It is believed that Moment will consolidate the $3.5B in payments that the MultiChoice Group processes annually to expand options for subscribers and make payment processes efficiently, as well as extend Africa’s most complete payment network to African and global businesses.

Managing Director at General Catalyst Partners, Mr Adam Valkin said,

Africa represents one of the most exciting investment opportunities for global investors. Over the next 20 years, most of the population growth of the world will be happening in Africa, along with increasing urbanisation. African consumers and businesses are not only moving business online, but will be the labour force for the world across the next 20 years

The company said Moment will give MultiChoice another opportunity to make a meaningful contribution to the economic development of the African continent. It is said that the long-term plan, is to provide the infrastructure for pan-African payments for the 44 million small businesses operating on the continent. It is also to turn the 90% of retail transactions that are currently taking place in cash, into digital payments. Moment aims to make digital transactions more accessible to the 350 million consumers that are underbanked or not banked at all.

Source: MultiChoice